Army Men
by Jewell Trim
Summary: Vin received a model WW2 airplane from Chris for his recent birthday. Problems arise when he doesn't want to share.


On Vin's birthday, Chris gave him one of his old model airplanes. It had been Vin's favorite from Chris's collection. To go along with the gift, Chris bought the younger boy little army men to play with. For the past two weeks, Vin would set up his little army men and create little battles. His prized plane flying overhead shooting down troops.

It was on one of these days when he was playing that Karen had taken Nathan to a doctor's appointment and Josiah was at a class meeting. Chris and Buck were hanging out together leaving Ezra in charge of watching the younger two.

Ezra never considered himself to be an individual who could be in charge of watching someone else. His whole life he had to take care of himself. He figured it wouldn't be too hard since the younger boys usually got along and didn't get into too much trouble.

He laid down on the couch with a book to read while Vin was on the floor acting out a battle. The younger boy made little sound effects to act as guns firing and airplane noises. Happy in his own world.

JD, who had been in the back for a while came into the front room where they were at. He didn't say anything but just sat down near Vin's battle.

Vin stopped and looked at critically.

"Can I play?" JD asked enthusiastically when he was noticed.

"No." was Vin's sharp reply.

Ezra tensed, he knew the sound of trouble.

"Why not?" JD pouted.

"Cause these are for big kids."

"I'm a big kid!" JD quipped.

"No you're not. This is for bigger kids. Go play with your Legos."

Vin tried to ignore JD and kept playing with his army men. He shoot a few of them, making little noises, and knocked them over.

JD didn't leave.

"Go away!" Vin said after JD didn't seem like he was going to move.

"I'm not doing anything."

"Ez, tell JD to leave me alone!" Vin called to the one in charge.

Ezra groaned and looked up from his book, "Why don't you play with your toys JD, or maybe a movie?"

He tried to think of anything that could quail the situation before it got out of hand.

"I'm not doing anything! I'm just sitting here." JD snapped.

"Just don't mess with his things then." Ezra sighed and went back to reading.

The boy wasn't hurting anybody by just sitting there.

After a few minutes JD got bold and tried to play with some of the little army men. He shot one and knocked them over.

Vin was ready to throw a fit.

"Stop it!"

Ezra wished Chris or even Buck to be here right now to handle the situation. He glanced over to see Vin shove JD.

JD responded by swiping Vin's prized airplane.

Vin sprang to his feet to get it back and the two started to fight. Vin desperately trying to get his plane. JD clinging onto it.

"Give it back JD!"

Ezra got to his feet to stop them. The young boys were now biting and clawing at each other. He got there in time and tried to take the plane out of their hands but the plane fell on the hardwood floor. The propellor flying off.

Vin scrambled for it, picking up the pieces.

The silence was tense before Vin began to scream.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we can fix it." Ezra said, trying to pacify the boy.

"No you can't! Once things are broke you can't fix 'em!" Vin shouted, his voice breaking at the very end.

He ran over to JD and pushed the little boy hard onto the ground before running out of the room with his plane.

"I hate you!"

JD hadn't fallen hard to issue any injury but for a little boy it was enough to start crying.

Ezra groaned, he knew Vin was probably crying in the other room and he had a balling JD in the front room with him.

 _Great, just great._

Chris and Buck came back to see Ezra laying on the couch reading and JD playing with the army men.

"How did it go?" asked Buck.

"Let's just say it was eventful." Ezra deadpanned.

"Anything happen?" asked Chris.

He frowned, he could detect that something bad happened. He'd noticed that Vin wasn't there in his usual spot playing with his army men and the house was pretty quiet. "Where's Vin?"

"In the bedroom, maybe he'll talk to you." Ezra sighed.

He felt bad for failing to do a simple job of watching the younger boys. His thoughts were that maybe Chris and Buck could get the two little ones to talk to one another again.

Chris nodded and went to their shared room.

Vin was on his bed on the top bunk. He didn't look when he entered the room.

"Hey, everything alright?"

He heard a sniffle and Vin shook his head.

"Why don't you come on down and sit with me?"

He crossed the room and sat on the edge of his bed and waited as Vin slowly made his way down with the airplane pressed up against his chest. The younger boy sat close to Chris and rested his head against his shoulder.

"What's got you so upset, Vin?"

Vin showed him the broken plane.

Chris took it and inspected the broken part.

"Can you fix it?" Vin asked, turning his small face up to see Chris's.

"Depends, yeah I can fix the plane, but that's not the important thing that has been broken."

Vin straightened up to get a better view of Chris.

"Did I lose a piece?" He sounded scared of his own question.

"No, what I'm referring to isn't about the plane. It's between you and JD."

Vin looked away.

"Is the plane so important to you that you'll break off your relationship with JD?"

"He broke the plane you got me. This was one of the planes from your dad's collection."

"Yeah and I gave it to you because you like it and because I love you. Vin, don't stop being friends with JD because of this. It was an accident. I've broken pieces off my dad's planes before and they're as good as new with a touch of glue. Relationships however don't work like that. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about." Vin gave a small nod. "How about we go talk to JD and this time we try not to fight but talk it out?"

He gave a small nod again and Chris gave him a little squeeze before standing up.

Buck sat down on the floor watching JD play with the army men.

"So you're going to tell me what happened or am I gonna have to tickle it out of you?"

JD shrugged and kept playing.

After a few minutes he stopped and dipped his head, "I just wanted to play."

"Did you ask?" Buck asked gently, trying to coax the information out.

"Yeah but he said 'no'."

"It doesn't look too much fun playing by yourself." Buck sighed, "So how is it that you're playing with his army men and he's in his room? Did Ezra put him in timeout?"

Ezra inwardly groaned, all the options of course come after everything was over.

JD shook his head.

"Then what happened?"

"Nothing, I just sat here watching and then Vin got upset. When I tried to play with one of the men he started yelling at me."

Buck was about to state that people who just lingered around could be considered annoying but decided to wait on that speech.

"So I took his plane and then he got angry and we fought and then the plane fell and broke. He screamed and pushed me. Then he said he hated me." JD mumbled the last part.

Buck sighed, trying to think of a good way to approach this. He looked at Ezra who sat on the couch watching. The older boy knew Ezra wasn't up to the task just yet to be dealing with JD and Vin fights. The two were fairly nice to each other and shared, but on some occasions one of them would instigate something.

"JD, how about next time you ask Vin if you can play and if he says 'no' then you be respectful of what he wants. I'm sure he would've, but you sitting here and hovering over him probably made him upset. When you're upset, it's kind of hard to then be nice and share. Do you understand?"

JD nodded.

"But he never plays with me anymore." JD mumbled.

"Why didn't you ask Ezra to play with you?"

JD shrugged.

"Well next time why don't you say, 'Vin would you like to play with me?'."

"He said he hates me so there probably won't be a next time."

"I'm sure that he's just blowing off steam."

Just then Chris and Vin walked into the front room, Vin still looking upset.

"I think we should all sit down and talk." began Chris.

"Excellent idea." Buck smiled.

Chris and Vin joined the two on the floor.

"Why don't our side start first then." Buck decided as he could see that Vin wasn't quite ready to speak yet.

The boy was busy playing with his toes and staring hard at his army men.

JD nodded and began, "I'm sorry Vin for messing with you and breaking your plane. I hope you can fix it alright. I just really wanted you to play with me again."

Vin looked up at JD's apology and then back down at his army men. He bit his lip.

"Vin, he apologized." Chris prodded.

Vin gave a little nod, "It's ok. Chris says he can fix it. Sorry for pushing you and saying I hate you."

Chris knew that was the best Vin was capable at the moment and gave the little boy's shoulder a squeeze.

"Well Buck, I don't know about you but I'm kinda tired of all this peace making already." He got to his feet and pulled Vin up with him. Chris moved Vin's arms to make it look like the boy was holding an imaginary gun and aimed it at the two still seated. "I say we get back to war."

"Oh no you don't." Buck laughed and sprung to his feet, grabbing JD.

The two older boys ran around the room with the little boys in dangling from their arms, pretending they were army men and shooting at each other.

Vin and JD were both soon laughing really hard. Chris, carrying Vin, hopped onto a couch and were pretending to be a sniper. Buck and JD ducked down behind a sofa before continuing fire.

The game lasted for awhile before the older boys got tired.

"Ok, now that the heavy stuff is out of the way, you both still have one more apology to make." Chris said in heavy breaths as he tried to regain his breath. He gestured over to Ezra who had been watching them.

As soon as Ezra noticed that their attention was on him he tried to not to avert from their gaze.

"I think you boys have also been giving poor Ezra here a hard time." Buck smiled.

Ezra wouldn't considered it to be classified a 'hard time', but he didn't say anything.

The two boys apologized and Ezra accepted their apologies.

"Why don't you join us?" grinned Buck.

Ezra wasn't sure how to play, but he figured that he could give it a try.

"I guess I can partake in activities for a small portion of the day."

"Just say 'yes'." Buck shook his head, but was smiling.

"How about Ezra is a prisoner of war that Vin and I took? We'll take him and hide him somewhere and you have to rescue him."

"Sounds great."

"I'll hide him, Vin. You stay here and keep an eye on the enemy." Chris said as he walked out of the room with Ezra.

When the two were alone Ezra spoke, "I must apologize myself for not being able to rectify the situation before you guys got back. It was my job to watch them and I literally just sat there watching them fight until it things got out of hand."

"Don't sweat it. Them fighting and making up can rival how many Buck's relationships he's had. I just wanted to let you know that you did a good job in keeping it from getting too bad."

Ezra frowned, "You don't think JD getting knocked down bad?"

"JD has fallen out of a tree and landed on his butt. That thing is impervious to anything."

Ezra smiled. "You did good Ezra, remember that."

He looked up to the older boy and didn't see any signs of lying.

"Still, I think I prefer to have one of you around." he said eventually.

"I'm sure after this, they'll want you to play with them all the time." Chris said deviously.

"Why's that?"

"Because I will make it so, so me and Buck can go to a movie this weekend."

"Oh the treachery."

The two boys laughed.

"Hey, are you almost done? We're ready out here to kick your butts!" came Buck's voice.

 **A/N: So this story came to me last night after thinking about the request for more stories in my universe created from the origin story, Little Quirks. Honestly they were both from dreams so I don't have a set plan for these. They'll probably come out at random times. But I hoped you enjoyed a little bit of JD and Vin time. I had a request for a Buck so maybe, if dreams permit, that will be my next main character. Love you all!**


End file.
